.png)
Some were off-grid cabins toying with convention; others, warm family homes hiding mechanized production. All of them prove that prefab is still one of the most exciting ways to build.
Prefab construction often starts with the premise that it offers a more affordable, efficient, and environmentally friendly way to build. But this year’s standout designs suggest that maybe those claims end up being reductive when we look at what nonconventional building methods are now able to achieve.
As a tool, prefabrication allows architects and homeowners a new kind of freedom, one that can be harnessed to transform a timeless design like the Quonset hut into a fire-resistant retreat, to touch down lightly on hard-to-access sites like craggy coasts and tropical mountaintops, to perform interventions in tight urban lots, and to mix, match, and arrange parts into a dream home. These ideas and more are what make up the top prefab homes of 2025.
Budget Breakdown: An Oregon Designer Turns a Quonset Hut Into a Guesthouse for $345K
Balancing real estate work, a newborn, and her new prefab homebuilding company, Steel Hut, Marie Saldivar and her husband, Kurtis, set out to build a guest suite on a corner of their 10-acre property beside Deschutes National Forest, Oregon. Having worked with Quonset hut conversions before, they felt comfortable using the $24K steel kit from from SteelMasters Builders. The challenge was transforming it into an inviting home with discrete areas. "The steel kit is very bunkerish and function-driven, which you don’t usually associate with warm residential spaces," Marie tells us.
Photo: Kaitlin Green
Collaborating with Skylab Architecture (who now offers models based off of this proof-of-concept), Marie and Kurtis marshalled what she warmly calls a "cognitive dissonance of materials" to add layers of warmth to the steel structure: brushed concrete floors, wood cabinets and trims, marble counters, off-white drywall, brass-toned fixtures and a turquoise-tiled bath all work together across the lofted interior to create the "stunning contrast" Marie sought.
Photo: Kaitlin Green
This Mexican Prefab Cabin Avoids Clichés While Framing Nature
Wander Cabins wanted their latest rental offering in the rolling, forested countryside around Mineral del Chico, Mexico, to be something novel. "Everyone has a tiny cabin," Santiago Garcia Rey, Wander Cabins’ founder, tells us. "All of them are either A-frames or square cabins." Recruiting the help of Mexico City architecture studio oioioi, they turned a prefab structure by Peregrino into what they’ve affectionately dubbed The O-Frame.
Photo: Jake Naughton
See the full story on Dwell.com: The Best Prefab Homes of 2025
Related stories:
- From the Archive: An Architect’s High Stakes Prefab Competition
- Why a Prefab Builder Is Making Houses With "Original Tradwife" Martha Stewart
- A Sanctuary of a Home Hides Behind This Gray Wall in the Middle of Buenos Aires
Read More
By: John Trujillo
Title: The Best Prefab Homes of 2025
Sourced From: www.dwell.com/article/the-best-prefab-homes-of-2025-1ab78fc0
Published Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:37:42 GMT
